The comment period for the NRC’s draft Regulatory Issue Summary (RIS) on true identity verification requirements closed on June 15, 2020. The industry had asked for and received a 45-day extension from the original April 30 deadline to provide comments.

The NRC published notice of a draft Regulatory Issue Summary (RIS) (previously published in ADAMS) in the Federal Register on March 31. The draft RIS purports to “clarify” licensees’ requirements pursuant to 10 CFR § 73.56(d)(3) to verify the “true identity” of non-immigrant foreign nationals who are granted unescorted access to nuclear power plants.

The NRC recently released draft NUREG-1409, Backfitting Guidelines, Revision 1 for public comment. NUREG-1409 was last revised in July 1990. This is another step in a string of actions taken by the NRC to better ensure the NRC’s application of the Backfit Rule consistent with its intent.

As anticipated in our September 3 blog, the NRC on September 16 published in the Federal Register a proposed rule and request for comment regarding its amendment of 10 CFR Part 26, “Fitness for Duty Programs” (FFD). We reported on the Commission’s approval of the rulemaking and the NRC Staff’s Draft Regulatory Analysis and Backfitting and Issue Finality.

The NRC will soon issue in the Federal Register a proposed rulemaking to amend the drug testing requirements of the Fitness for Duty (FFD) Program in 10 CFR Part 26. The proposed rule seeks to align the NRC’s drug testing requirements in Part 26 with the US Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS’s) 2008 Mandatory Guidelines for Federal Workplace Drug Testing Programs (the 2008 Guidelines).

In the latest installment of NRC’s changes to its guidance on backfitting on May 29, the Commission approved the Staff’s proposed revisions to Management Directive (MD) 8.4, previously titled, “Management of Backfitting, Issue Finality, and Information Collection” and its companion Directive Handbook (DH).

A divided Commission at the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) on January 24 approved the Mitigation of Beyond-Design-Basis Events rulemaking (Final Rule).

The nuclear industry periodically has urged the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to more diligently apply the backfit rule when NRC staff attempts to change its position without proper justification.

On December 20, the NRC’s Office of the General Counsel (OGC) issued a memorandum to the Committee to Review Generic Requirements (CRGR) summarizing key policy recommendations contained in COMSECY-16-0020 (“Recommendation on Revision of Guidance Concerning Consideration of Cost and Applicability of Compliance Exception to Backfit Rule”).

In a September 15, 2016, letter to Exelon, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC’s) executive director for operations (EDO) granted Exelon’s appeal of the NRC’s attempted imposition of a backfit by using the compliance exception to the backfit rule. Using that exception would have allowed the NRC to impose the backfit without justifying its actions from a cost-benefit perspective.